Srinagar, May 25: A spontaneous shutdown was observed in parts of Srinagar on Wednesday to protest the NIA court’s verdict to sentence JKLF chief Yasin Malik to life imprisonment in a terror funding case.
Reports and eyewitnesses said from shops and business establishments remained shut from early morning in Maisuma and its adjoining areas near Lal Chowk, once considered the bastion of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF).
An uneasy calm descended in the city as reports of Malik's sentence spread. Shops were shut in old Srinagar by noon. However, transport plied normally throughout the city during the day and government offices also remained open.
People throughout the day were waiting anxiously and keeping a close watch on the news channels to know about the latest developments in the case. No organisations or outfits had called for it but the spontaneous shutdown took the security establishment by surprise. For the last two years, the police have not allowed shopkeepers to observe any shutdown.
It was after a long time that there was a strike in support of a separatist leader in the Valley. Till August 2019, separatists would issue strike calls frequently. However, since the abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 in August 2019 and subsequent crackdown on separatists, no such strike calls were issued.
Even the local media doesn't publish any statements coming from separatist groups. Most of the separatist leaders have been jailed or have gone into hibernation in the last three years.
Moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq had on May 21 called for a strike in Kashmir to pay tributes to Moulvi Mohammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone on their death anniversary on May 21. However, there was no response to the shutdown call.
A NIA court in Delhi has convicted Malik in a case related to alleged terrorism and secessionist activities in the Kashmir Valley in 2016-17. The JKLF chief had told the court on May 10 that he was not contesting the charges against him that included Sections 16 (terrorist act), 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy to commit terrorist act) and 20 (being member of terrorist organisation) of Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and a few sections of IPC.
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